22 Mar 2008

Hiking in The Devil's Kitchen

Welcome to Twll Du which translates into the black hole in Welsh, but in English it translates into The Devils Kitchen. It refers to the narrow cleft which you can see in the top right hand photograph. It is found in the hanging valley called CwmIdwal which is in Snowdonia, Wales.

I have been to this place quite a few times, even with school,as its an area that was formed by glaciation and is absolutely beautiful.

In those past visits I had not attempted any hiking. So its starts as a lovely nice stroll, then its a rather tough scramble to the top. You will see that if you watch the video located at the bottom of this post.

Unfortunately once we did get to the top in one piece, the devil decided to come out to play and we were battered by hailstones and a little snow flurry. Although that did pass fairly quickly, the clouds came down fast on the mountain tops and visibility decreased. This meant it wasn't safe to carry on as we weren't familiar enough with the area for that to be a wise decision.

This also meant I didn't get to see some rather cool rock formations, but I will be going back so will get them next time.

The scramble down was worse as it was a lot more slippery and I had to hold onto to the mountain at some points. No doubt you will be amazed to know that for once I did not fall on my arse, a miracle I know.

The Devil himself appeared in the form of a mountain goat on the scramble down, but stayed still long enough for me to take a picture. A fellow walker told us that one of the mountain goats butt you if you don't feed it. That would of meant goat curry if the furry blighter tried that with me.

Even though the weather spoilt some of walk, overall it was still a gorgeous place and I am looking forward to going back in better weather.

The video is filmed with the same camera that I use to take the photographs, a canon powershot A630. I wish I had a good quality hand held camera but at the moment this does the job.

As its an ominous place I went with ominous music to set the theme, also you could hear that I was out of breath at times, so that had to be edited out.

I forgot to say that the music is by Matthijs Vos, which I found on Jamendo thanks to my chum Tech Fun aka JD. It is track seven, Strings Adventure, and from your comments it definitely adds an eerie factor to the video.

As I have mentioned in the past, a lot of your hiking photos look like places here in Oregon, but NOT these. The name does fit the location.

I love hiking, but also like to explore the places I hike. This does look like a place I would really like to hike and explore. I went on a 15 mile hike/climb yesterday with a group and they were hell bent on getting through, rather than exploring the area. So I often go alone to be able to follow whatever attracts my interest.

@Robert have you posted photos of wyoming so I can compare? Thanks for commenting :)

@Thomas, curse you for your freakish memory,lol! There wasn't enough snow (lies) haha! I want one off you first :)I am glad you liked the video.

@Will thats exactly why I like hiking with my two friends, they let me dawdle at the back taking photos and catching my breath. The bigger groups always just want to get it done and never seem to appreciate the scenery around them.

@Olga hehe me either, I cant wait to see what my hiking buds think about it. I havent told them yet :)

@Chica not enough as I would like, I am lucky though :)

@Roger hope your feeling better now? Its a pleasure to share it with everyone :)

@Tish thank you! :)

@Jenn yep you summed it up rather well, I think it will look completely different when I go in better weather.

@floog, wow thanks for such nice words :) I really enjoy writing these posts and letting everyone come along on these hikes with me :)